The King's Dismissal

"Bold, aren’t we? Do you think the Lycan King will do whatever I tell him to do?" Beta Vaughn chuckled over the receiver, his voice thick with a strange mixture of amusement and deep distraction.

Kaelia gripped the heavy mahogany receiver, her knuckles turning white against the polished wood. "I hope he respects you enough to grant you this little favour. Innocent lives depend on it."

Over the humming static of the secured line, a wet, sloppy slurping sound echoed through the earpiece. Kaelia stiffened in her chair.

"Jewel, pull your wet mouth off my cock. That is enough sucking for now. I need to take this." Vaughn grunted on the other end, a harsh sound of raw physical release slipping through the connection.

Kaelia squeezed her eyes shut. A flush of acute embarrassment burned across her cheeks. The Beta was receiving oral sex while taking her desperate call.

"See you tonight, Beta." A faint female voice murmured in the background, followed by the soft rustle of bedsheets and retreating footsteps.

"Just so you know, I am sacrificing a lot right now to pay you back. So, after you speak to him, consider our ledger closed and our debt settled." Vaughn spoke again, his tone shifting back to blunt business.

"I appreciate your sacrifice. Thank you." Kaelia swallowed the knot of humiliation in her throat and sat up straight.

A heavy wooden door creaked open over the line.

"Hey, D. I need you to speak to someone." Vaughn’s muffled voice filtered through the speaker.

"Not interested." A deep, rumbling growl answered.

Kaelia’s heart dropped into her stomach.

"I am not trying to set you up with another female. It is just some werewolf Luna from a merged territory. I owe her a life debt, okay?" Vaughn let out a bark of laughter.

"Not interested." The second refusal carried an icy, razor-sharp edge.

Panic clawed at Kaelia’s chest. This phone call was her only viable strategy. In her past life, she had waited far too long. By the time she gathered the fading courage to call Beta Vaughn, the Lycans were preoccupied with bloody territorial disputes on their own borders. He had ignored her frantic calls back then, likely blocking her number. She needed this literal lifeline to work right now.

"Just give her five minutes of your time." The loud rustle of a phone changing hands crackled in Kaelia's ear.

Another low growl vibrated through the speakers.

"Alpha Darius speaking." A rich, metallic timbre resonated through the line.

Kaelia ceased breathing for a fraction of a second. The absolute authority radiating from his voice was undeniable. The Lycan King had not even bothered to use his royal title.

"Hello, Your Majesty. My name is Kaelia Blackwood. I am the Luna of the Glimmer River pack." Kaelia forced her spine straight, addressing him with strict formality.

Silence stretched over the connection. The weight of his unspoken judgment pressed down on her shoulders. She remembered she only had a five-minute window to secure her future.

"I need your help. My husband is Alpha Torin Blackwood. I am preparing to divorce him in the near future." Kaelia pushed the words out into the open air.

"Fascinating. But what does a mundane marital dispute have to do with the Lycan throne? You can divorce your mate any time you desire without my royal decree." Darius responded, his tone devoid of any empathy or interest.

"That is not the part I need your help with, Alpha. We are chosen mates, not fated. When we married, my family merged our ancestral Glimmer River pack into his territory under the strict promise of equal rule. What I require from you is your political backing to get my people and my lands back. You are the Lycan King. When I raise this territorial dispute, your word will be the final mandate at the Alpha Council. They would not dare to decline your ruling."

"Hmm. And you assume the case would even reach that far up the chain? You are aware the Alpha Council consists solely of patriarchal male Alphas. What makes you think a single one of them will support a female claiming land?" He sounded genuinely amused now.

"They will support the claim if they know the Lycan King stands on my side. I have proven myself as a competent leader and a fierce warrior for years. My qualifications should not be an issue." Kaelia felt a vital surge of desperate bravery.

"Then perhaps everything is fine, and you do not need my intervention at all. You can fight them yourself." He let out a cold chuckle.

"I do need your help, Your Majesty. I would be eternally grateful for it."

"This is a complex political matter. It is not something I decide over a random phone call with a stranger. Frankly, it does not sound serious enough to bother with."

White-hot fury ignited in Kaelia’s veins. Did he just dismiss the survival of her entire pack as a trivial farce?

"But—"

"We have nothing further to discuss. You chose to get married and hand your pack over to your husband. You failed to think the consequences through, and it was your own mistake. Now it is too late to cry about it." The Lycan King cut her off, his voice dripping with aristocratic boredom. "Torin will owe you a generous alimony according to our standard laws. You will get to keep your luxurious lifestyle if money is what bothers you."

"It is not about the money! I cannot leave my people suffering under their control!" Kaelia slammed her fist onto the mahogany desk.

"Their control? So, this is the root of the problem. He found another female, and you are just a bitter woman seeking domestic revenge?" He scoffed.

Kaelia saw red. She listened to the same tired, misogynistic script. It was the same mocking dismissal she had endured from her so-called friends in her previous life.

"I am not bitter! I am enraged! Because now I see how corrupt and broken our system is! I see how unfairly women are treated the exact moment a male decides he no longer wants to stand by her side! You preach about equality and allow females to train as warriors, but when it comes to true power, you force a female to work three times harder than any male just to be considered competent! I have done an Alpha’s job for years! I managed the border security, balanced the pack finances, and resolved internal disputes without a single flaw while Torin paraded around taking all the credit! I did his job because my mate was too incompetent to do it himself!" Kaelia gripped the receiver, pouring her rage into the microphone.

"But all you choose to see is a pathetic, discarded wife crying over her husband’s betrayal! It hurts like physical torture, but I am not wailing in pain upon the floor. I stand here planning my strategic return to power. You know nothing of my truth, yet you have already passed your blind judgment from your comfortable throne. You are a massive disappointment as a sovereign!"

She slammed the receiver down against the base unit with brutal force. The hard plastic shattered into a dozen jagged shards, scattering across the polished wood floor.

She stood alone in the quiet office, her chest heaving with explosive indignance.

Hundreds of miles away in the royal Lycan citadel, Darius Ravenscroft sat frozen behind his massive obsidian desk. The royal study was a cavernous room filled with ancient military tomes and weapons forged from pure silver, but right now, the only sound was the dead dial tone emanating from the speaker.

A heavy silence settled over the regal room.

"Did that female just scold me and shatter the connection?" Darius murmured, his thick brows knitting together in disbelief.

"I see that went well." Vaughn reached across the desk and snatched his device back.

"Remind me again. Who exactly was that on the phone?" Darius shifted his gaze to his Beta.

"Before I give you the details, are you planning to send an execution squad to kill her?" Vaughn let out a nervous, breathless laugh.

"Vaughn! Answer the question!" Darius unleashed a booming growl that rattled the heavy glass panes of the study windows.

"Fine! She is the Luna of the Glimmer River pack." Vaughn collapsed into the leather armchair opposite the majestic desk.

Glimmer River. It was a modest territory situated just south of Glimmer Lake.

"What else is there?" Darius tapped his large fingers against the armrest of his chair.

"Her name is Kaelia Blackwood. If my memory is correct, she has been a Luna for five or six years. Maybe seven."

"You claimed you owed her a life debt. How so? Is she one of your random nighttime conquests?" Darius pinned his friend with a dangerous, piercing glare.

"Of course not! She saved Owen seven years ago. A dozen feral rogues breached the perimeter and attacked his boarding school. She happened to be visiting the campus for a diplomatic event at the time. She was not even a Luna back then, just an untested female preparing for the role." Vaughn threw his hands up in defense.

"She saved my nephew?" Darius stopped tapping his fingers. He rubbed the tense bridge of his nose.

"Yes. She stepped in front of the feral ambush. She slaughtered three massive rogues with a silver blade and shielded his body from their claws. Owen was only a twelve-year-old pup at the time. She bled for him. If she had not intervened before the royal guards arrived, your nephew would be a corpse." Vaughn dropped his casual demeanor, letting the grim reality hang heavy in the air.

"Why did you not inform me of this before handing over the phone?" Darius groaned, a strange prickle of guilt needling his conscience.

"There was no time! How was I supposed to know you were going to act like an arrogant prick to the woman who kept my nephew breathing?" Vaughn shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Is there ever a polite time to be a prick to a female?" Beta Vaughn chuckled.

"Shut up and find out where I can meet her in person. I am intrigued. She does seem incredibly feisty." Darius ordered, ignoring the rhetorical jab.

"Just the type of female you usually avoid." Vaughn stood up from the armchair.

A low, warning rumble vibrated from the King's broad chest.

"I will go get the intelligence network to work immediately." Vaughn wiped the mocking grin off his face and hurried out of the heavy oak doors.

Darius leaned back into his comfortable leather chair, staring at the empty doorway. He had a vast kingdom to run, bloody rogue border skirmishes to manage, and endless political disputes to settle. Yet, this obscure Luna from a merged pack had managed to capture his undivided attention in less than three minutes.

A slow, deliberate smirk curled the corner of his mouth. Females usually trembled in his presence or simpered for his royal favor. It had been decades since anyone dared to unleash such unchecked, blistering disrespect upon him. Kaelia Blackwood was a fascinating anomaly. She possessed a spine of pure steel.

She had shed blood to protect his kin. He owed her the basic courtesy of reviewing her divorce case.

So be it.

The morning sun breached the horizon, casting sharp rays of light across Kaelia's bedroom. She had not slept a single minute. Instead, she had spent the long, dark hours mapping out her survival strategy and reflecting on the shifting timeline. The phone call with the Lycan King was a dangerous gamble that ended in a fiery disaster, but she refused to dwell on his mockery now. She had an immediate, venomous threat to handle inside her own packhouse.

She stepped out of her attached bathroom and began dressing for breakfast. She bypassed the subdued, neutral colors Torin always preferred his wife to wear. Instead, she selected a tailored, emerald-green gown that draped over her frame. The rich fabric projected unyielding authority and regal composure. She pulled a brush through her dark hair, letting it cascade down her shoulders in loose waves. She refused to apply any makeup. She knew exactly what kind of theatrical ambush awaited her downstairs, and she needed her face to show nothing but cold indifference.

She stepped out of her suite and almost collided with Tessa in the hallway.

"Kael. How about we skip the main hall today? We can eat breakfast in here and chat by the window. Just the two of us." Tessa offered a strained, fragile smile.

Kaelia read the raw anxiety radiating from her friend. Tessa was trying to shield her from the public humiliation of facing Torin's pregnant mistress. In her past life, Kaelia might have hidden away, drowning in her own misery. But the woman standing in the hallway was not the same naive Luna who had died on the cold forest floor. She harbored strategic patience now.

"Maybe another time. Right now, I have a specific duty to attend to. Just walk by my side and observe, okay?" Kaelia reached out and squeezed Tessa’s hand.

"Always." Tessa blinked back the moisture threatening to spill from her eyes.

The heavy oak doors of the packhouse dining room stood open at the bottom of the grand stone staircase. The massive hall was buzzing with the chaotic chatter of hundreds of pack members eating their morning meal. The scent of roasted meats, fresh bread, and brewing coffee hit Kaelia’s nose, mixed with the musky scent of a hundred werewolves.

Kaelia descended the steps with measured grace.

The moment her foot touched the threshold of the dining room, the noise died. It was not a gradual fade. It was a brutal, immediate silencing. Hundreds of spoons clattered against porcelain bowls. Eyes darted toward the entryway.

Kaelia swept her gaze across the expanse of the room.

Seated at the high table—a spot strictly reserved for the Alpha, the Luna, and the elite ranking warriors—was Nadia. It was only the mistress's first official morning in the packhouse, yet she had already claimed a seat of absolute honor. She sat surrounded by the strongest wolves, leaning in and soaking up their protective attention.

Nadia spotted Kaelia standing by the entrance.

"Luna!" Nadia bolted upright, nearly knocking her heavy wooden chair backward.

Kaelia stood still, watching the performance begin.

"Please forgive my atrocious rudeness! I swear to the Goddess, I know my proper place in this pack!" Nadia stammered with unyielding volume, ensuring her trembling voice carried to the farthest corners of the silent hall.